Red Bull's Mark Webber comfortably out-paced Lewis Hamilton's McLaren to top practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Australian, who took pole here in 2010, was 1.665 seconds ahead of Hamilton and three seconds faster than team-mate Sebastian Vettel in 17th.
Mercedes's Michael Schumacher was third, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso ninth and Jenson Button's McLaren 15th.
It was a bad start for Renault as both cars suffered serious brake problems.
Renault were aiming to build on Vitaly Petrov's third place in Melbourne last weekend, with team boss Eric Boullier saying the team could go even faster.
But the team's preparations were hit when Nick Heidfeld and Petrov both retired from the session in spectacular fashion because of brake problems.
Heidfeld had to nurse his Renault back to the pits after the brakes jammed on his front right wheel.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz watched as the car was surrounded by mechanics as it returned to the pits.
"There is a nice burning brakes smell and a lot of brake dust," commented Kravitz. "He has also made a right mess of the floor."
Things got worse for Renault when Petrov ploughed his car into the gravel and reported on the team radio a brake and suspensio problem.
McLaren arrived in Malaysia optimistic about their chances of challenging Red Bull at Sepang's fast and flowing circuit and Hamilton was the champion's closet rival, just as he was in Australia's opening race.
The gap to Vettel's pole positio time was 0.8 secs in Melbourne but the gap here between Hamilton and Webber's leading time of one minute 37.651seconds was more than double that.
Button, who won in Malaysia in 2009, complained that he was losing rear grip the more time the Pirelli tyres spent on track.
"This will be the story of the weekend, with the rear tyres sliding away time and time again," commented BBC Radio 5 live analyst Anthony Davidson.
Vettel did not show his hand in opening practice, with Davidson suspecting that Red Bull were running different fuel loads in each of their cars as they did race-preparation work.
Ferrari also chose not to focus on performance during first practice and instead ran through aerodynamic set-up work on a track where efficient downforce is critical to overall importance.
The Italian team, who said they were still trying to unlock the full potential of their 2011 car, spent the session swapping variants of front and rear wings.
Alonso, who ran off into the gravel late in the session but was able to return to the track, was almost three seconds off the pace, while his team-mate Felipe Massa fared much better in sixth.
After failing to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix under the re-introduced 107% rule, Hispania had also been confident of a more positive weekend in Malaysia.
But the Spanish team's hopes literally went up in smoke in first practice as Narain Karthikeyan had only just nosed out of the garage to set out on his third lap when he sent thick plumes into the air.
He later pulled over onto the grass as a precaution and Kravitz explained: "It was a problem with the oil system and oil is leaking somewhere. Narain is really frustrated."
Virgin driver Jerome D'Ambrosio provided a dramatic finish to an action-packed session as he slid sideways into the gravel.
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